If you love medium-bodied red wines, break the land speed record and rush to this Pokolbin Vintners Light Dry Red 2024. Seriously.

A thrilling example of modern Hunter River Burgundy, it is sourced from a single vineyard that also supplies Tyrrell’s and Mount Pleasant. These 50-year-old vines have produced something utterly exquisite.

Blueberries, red plums and sleek cherries glide across the palate, wrapped in a blanket of fine spice that seems to drape effortlessly from start to finish. And then there’s the texture. Weightless. Effortless. Absolutely joyous. It sings, dances and whispers all in the same breath, delivering that beautiful Hunter Valley combination of brightness, perfume, savoury detail and incredible drinkability. I didn’t want this to stop. But it did. I will place an order to rectify this, and I demand that you do the same. It's easily the best new find of the year to cross the Qwine tasting bench.
96/100

This is slightly richer, and deeper, than the 2023 release, but it is no less beautiful. Indeed there’s a feeling of completeness to this release. Effortless flavours of bright red cherry, plum, woodsmoke, sweet spice and red roses come inflected with cedarwood, blueberry and vanilla. The purity of this wine is quite something. The flow. The way it carries you along. It’s the kind of wine that feels both complex and simple at once, the latter courtesy of how free the fruit feels. This is how you make medium weight, high-terroir red wine. 95 points – Campbell Mattinson.

Hand harvested with 20% whole cluster. Charming and detailed with satiny, wave-like flow; perfectly medium weight, yet with impressive flavour density. Sourced from 50-plus-year-old vines rooted in terra rossa soil overlying Permian limestone, from the top of Tinklers vineyard on Pokolbin Mountain. Ripe red plum, soft cranberry, crushed berries and a fleck of bright, fragrant green peppercorn. Fine and elevated, with svelte tannin and lively acidity for balance.

Toni Paterson MW